How to Charm a Witch
by ChatterChick
Summary: Colin Longbottom wants nothing more than to impress Lily Luna Potter. Unfortunately he has all the charm of your typical Longbottom male.
1. Remember Her Birthday

**How to Charm a Witch**

by ChatterChick

Summary: Colin Longbottom wants nothing more than to impress Lily Luna Potter. Unfortunately he has all the charm of your typical Longbottom male.

A/N: This is a light and fluffy Next-Gen rom-con. It features Colin Longbottom, the eldest child of Neville and Hannah Longbottom (in my headcanon anyway). I appreciate any feedback, so let me know if you have some :) Colin kinda turned into this moody little thing when I started writing him, but I guess being fifteen isn't fun. Especially when your entire family likes to tease you. Cheers!

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**Chapter 1: Remember Her Birthday**

The little scops owl tapping at his windowsill was not a welcome sight.

Colin dreaded seeing the tiny bundle of feathers, knowing that it meant another letter from Holly Summers. He gritted his teeth. They had snogged a few times during the last week of classes and now she wouldn't leave him alone. Holly sent a letter every week telling him about her week and asking about his. He'd write back a half-hearted response, not wanting to be rude. He suspected that she was hoping they'd start dating once they returned in September.

He opened the window, letting the hyper little owl dive into his room. Colin ducked, narrowly avoiding having Tinkerbell whack him in the head like she had the first time.

Holly was pretty. Holly was fun to kiss. Holly felt nice in his hands.

But Holly Summers wasn't Lily Potter.

While Colin knew that he liked kissing Holly, he also knew it wasn't fair to Holly to have a boyfriend who was pretending she was her dormmate. He thought if he didn't act any further, Holly would take the hint and leave him alone.

Dryly, he wondered if he should give a bigger hint.

The little owl danced around his desk as Colin tried to untie the letter from her foot. He frowned in confusion, that wasn't an ordinary envelope. It was bright red, a change from the usual yellowish parchment their world used.

It curled into a pair of lips once he removed it from Holly's owl and that was the moment he realized it.

Holly had sent him a Howler.

_"Colin Longbottom!" _Her angry voice bellowed. "_I'm hurt my own _boyfriend_ couldn't even remember my birthday! You always remember _Lily's_, but you can't even think to send me a card?We're through! Don't even try to apologise!"_ The letter promptly ripped itself to shreds, falling into a pile on Colin's desk.

The first thought Colin had, after getting over the surprise, was that he didn't realize he was Holly's boyfriend.

Tinkerbell was silent, standing on his desk with her head tilted up at him. She had stopped hopping around when she heard her human's voice, seeming to understand that Colin was in serious trouble with Holly.

"I didn't know!" Colin lamely defended himself against the owl's accusing stare.

He hastily wrote Holly an apology, although he hoped that their 'relationship' was wrecked beyond repair. Just as he was sending Tinkerbell out the window, there was a knock on his bedroom door.

"Colin?" He heard his dad ask.

"Just a minute!" Colin dumped the remains of the howler in his rubbish bin, not wanting his dad to see it. Although it was very likely that he heard every word. "Come in!"

The door opened and Neville poked his head in. Colin sat as innocently as he could manage, hoping his dad hadn't come upstairs to see what the yelling had been about. To Colin's good fortune, Neville didn't even mention it.

"Hogwarts letters are on their way," he said. "I told Wayne to send them by owl post this time, more fun for your sisters, I think."

Most years Neville would just give him the letter, rather than use one of the school's post owls. Although this year the twins were starting their first year, and getting that acceptance letter in the post was half the fun. They'd probably go out for supper and ice cream to celebrate after the letters arrived.

Neville looked a little nervous as he sat down on Colin's unmade bed. "But that reminded me, you're starting your fifth year soon and I thought we should have a talk."

Colin felt his cheeks burn, and there was a bit of an annoying whine to his voice. "Dad is this _really_ necessary?"

He had been half-expecting this and half-dreading this. He had been given a less detailed version before he started his first year, and that had been traumatising enough. The exact mechanics had been glossed over, but held the unspoken promise that there would eventually be a part two. He had lived in a boys' dorm for the past four years and had read plenty of _Playwizard_. Colin had heard stories from the older boys and could figure out which bits went where. There was really no need for him and Neville to have any sort of conversation regarding witches.

Ever.

While Neville somehow managed this cool professor façade at school, Colin knew exactly how dorky and awkward his dad could be. This would probably make Top Five Embarrassing Dad moments. Possibly up there with Neville having to dock points from Colin and Holly when he caught them snogging after curfew in an empty classroom. That had been at the end of fourth year, so the memory was probably just as fresh in Neville's mind as it was in Colin's.

"I thought I owed you an explanation – "

"Really, Dad, it's fine, I get it!" Colin interrupted, he felt like his cheeks were on fire. He must have been spending too much time with Hugo and Lily, because he seemed to have adopted the infamous Weasley blush. "I know what you saw, but it's nothing serious. Holly probably won't even want to _look_ at me now, never mind the other stuff."

Neville stared blankly at him, before a strange smile came over his face. He looked like he was actually _enjoying_ Colin's discomfort. Jerk. "That's not where this was going. Although if there was something else you wanted to - ?"

"Nope," Colin hurriedly cut him off, feeling like such a fool now. "Carry on, you wanted to explain - ?"

"Right, well, I thought it was only fair to explain to you that I can't make you a prefect. I'm sure you know how that would look to the other students."

"Oh yeah, that's fine." He hadn't even considered that. He supposed it would look really bad if the Head of Gryffindor picked his son for honours like prefect. It was a bit disappointing, because he was sure out of all the Gryffindor boys in his year, he would have been the best pick. Plus Lily was probably going to be the female prefect and it would have meant hours wandering empty corridors alone with her. "Did Hugo get it then?"

"I can't say," Neville said with a smile. "You'll find out soon enough, I imagine."

His dad was always trying to be fair, not wanting anyone to say that Colin was given special treatment because his parents were both staff at the school. Neville taught Herbology while Colin's mum, Hannah, ran the school's Hospital Wing. Neville rarely rewarded Colin house points, and he had one of the NEWT students grade Colin's Herbology homework and tests for extra credit.

Not that that stopped some people from saying harsh things about favouritism.

"I'll be doing the same thing for Anthony and the girls, regardless of what house they're in."

The professors had all known the Longbottom children since they were in nappies. Colin knew many of the professors had a soft spot for them for that very reason, although they didn't show it once Colin became a student. It still put them in a tough spot, as Colin was the son of their colleagues. Usually whenever Colin got into trouble, they'd give him detention with his dad. Or if they were particularly cruel, they'd give him detention with his mum.

"For what it's worth, I think you would have made an excellent prefect. I'm sorry I couldn't give it to you."

Colin gave a small smile. "It's fine, really."

"You're still my favourite, but don't tell the other students that," his dad said, getting up to leave the room.

Colin rolled his eyes. If only the other students could see how corny his dad was outside of school, then they'd stop telling him how lucky he was to be Neville's kid. They all expected the wizard who led Dumbledore's Army into battle and beheaded Voldemort's snake to be a badass in every day life. He wasn't. He'd leave the house with his robes inside-out if someone didn't point it out to him.

"By the way, Colin?" Neville stopped in the doorway, seeming to remember something else. "If you and Ms Summers _do_ try anything in the Gryffindor dorms, there's a jinx that lets the Head of House know."

Colin blushed furiously, calling out after him, "Yeah? Well, there's plenty of empty classrooms!"

Having your dad be your Head of House _really_ sucked at times.

Shortly after Neville left, Colin decided he had had enough of the four walls of his room. He wondered if his mum had prepared lunch yet and decided to venture downstairs. He didn't make it far, however, because the door next to his room opened the moment he walked out. Colin's eleven-year-old sister, Alice, was grinning at him from within her doorway.

"Colin's got a _girlfriend_," Alice said in that perfected sing-songy little sister voice. "And he's in trouble cause he forgot her _birthday_!"

"She's not my girlfriend!" he hotly insisted. He had thought he got off lucky when his dad didn't question him about the howler. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to escape it a second time. Especially not with Alice.

"That's not what I heard," she brightly replied.

The door opened wider, and they were joined by Alice's twin, Gracie. Although she was sweeter than Alice, she could be equally annoying. "Did you kiss her?"

"That's none of your business!"

"You kissed a girl and she wasn't your girlfriend?" Gracie sounded scandalized.

"I'm telling Mum!" Alice announced.

There was a momentary debate whether he should explain that people didn't have to date to kiss. It would stop them from looking at him like he had committed some horrible crime. In the end, he decided that he'd rather his younger sisters remain oblivious to such things for a while. Even if that meant they thought he had no morals. "You won't tell Mum, or I'll tell her what _really_ happened to her glass badger."

There was a huff, but it seemed that the three of them were in agreement for the meantime. The trouble they would get in for breaking an ornament and blaming the family owl was not worth the pleasure they would get from watching him squirm during lunch.

"Hello love," Hannah brightly greeted him when he entered the kitchen. She was supervising the stew as it self-stirred. His mum used to run The Leaky Cauldron with his uncle Luke, but left it to pursue a career as a Healer. She was still an amazing cook though, and Colin was one of the few students at Hogwarts to honestly miss home cooked meals.

"Is lunch almost ready? I'm _starving_."

"You'd think I never feed you," she teased. He couldn't help it, he was a growing teenage wizard. "It's just about ready, why don't you set the table?"

There was a bit of grumbling, because he knew she could do it faster and easier with just a flick of her wand. He couldn't wait until he turned seventeen and could do magic outside of school. He'd never have to do a single household chore again!

Neville greeted Hannah with a kiss on the cheek. "Something smells good."

Colin wrinkled his nose in disgust. Honestly, why couldn't he have normal parents? Ones who didn't behave like love-sick teenagers?

Hannah made a 'hmm' sound in agreement. With the wave of her wand, a stack of bowls floated out of the cupboard and the ladle came to life, scooping out steaming bowls. She passed two bowls to Colin to take to the table, with warnings not to spill it.

"Are we going to the Leaky tonight?" Colin asked. He hadn't seen Uncle Luke in a while and it would be fun to go there. "We went when Anthony got his acceptance letter."

"We'll let the girls pick," Hannah said. "Although they'll probably want that muggle place in Inverness again. McDonalds?"

His mum was firmly of the opinion that McDonalds wasn't _real_ food, although Colin and his siblings begged to differ. They didn't get to go often as a result, although it was usually their first choice. Lately it hadn't mattered much to Colin anyway. He had discovered that most muggle cities had one, and he had introduced it to Lily and Hugo when they were exploring London one day.

"Kids, lunch!" Hannah called up the stairs.

Alice and Gracie were the first to come bounding down the stairs. They were then followed by their brother, Anthony, the forgotten middle child of the family. He was considerably quieter than Colin and the twins and he seemed to blend into the background. Except this time.

As everyone settled around the table for lunch, he just had to ask, "What was the screaming about upstairs?"

"Nothing." Colin avoided eye contact with Alice, who was across from him at the table. "Some dramatic program on the wireless. I shut it off."

"I heard some of it," Alice smugly informed the family. "Nasty breakup."

"_Badger_," he mouthed. That quickly silenced her, and lunch was passed with few problems. Hannah asked each of them about their day so far, and what they were planning to do for the rest of it.

"I'm going to Hugo's!" Colin announced after he was done, jumping up from the table. He grabbed his trainers, knowing that they would probably leave the Weasleys' house at some point.

"Be home before five!" Hannah told him.

"Sure, sure."

"Colin?" Hannah sweetly asked. Although, the smile on her face reminded him that badgers were a very underestimated and very devious creature. "Next time you date a girl, maybe try asking for her birthday sooner."

His parents were the _worst_.


	2. Support Her Ideas

**How to Charm a Witch**

by ChatterChick

Summary: Colin Longbottom wants nothing more than to impress Lily Luna Potter. Unfortunately he has all the charm of your typical Longbottom male.

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**Chapter 2: Support Her (Bad) Ideas**

Colin stumbled out of the fireplace, finding himself in the empty living room of his best mate's house. He dusted off the soot; Colin had never been particularly good at floo travel, despite using it so often.

"Colin?"

"Hey Ron," he cheerfully greeted Hugo's dad.

Colin had grown up with Lily and Hugo since their parents were all really close friends and went to school together. There was an open-fireplace policy between the three houses, and it wasn't unusual for one of them to turn up unannounced like this. Colin lived in Hogsmeade Village, one of the few all-wizarding villages in Great Britain. Lily lived in a wizarding community in Holyhead. Hugo lived in Oxford, a muggle city. They spent most of their time in one of those three locations, but this summer they had permission to floo to The Leaky Cauldron on their own and explore London.

"Hugo's in his room," Ron told him. "Although there's no point in knocking; he's blasting music again and can't hear a thing."

"Thanks!"

Ron must have cast a silencing charm around Hugo's room, because Colin couldn't hear anything as he approached. The moment he opened the door, a wall of music hit him, temporarily rendering him deaf. _Belladona and the Banshees _screeched in the background, only the occasional word sounding anything remotely related to English. No wonder his parents had decided to block the sound. Colin had no idea how Hugo could stand it.

"Hugo!" Colin tried to shout over the noise. "HUGO! _HUGO WEASLEY_!"

His friend sat at his desk, a notebook in front of him and a slightly glazed expression in his blue eyes. He didn't even respond when Colin waved a hand in front of his face. So Colin tapped him on the shoulder, startling him out of his thoughts. Immediately, Hugo turned off the music box and took a pair of earplugs out of his ears.

"When did you get here?"

"A few minutes ago? You really zoned out."

"Patented Daydream Charms from Uncle George," Hugo explained. "The music keeps Mum and Dad out."

"What were you daydreaming about?" Colin asked with a smirk. Hugo was still wearing a rather dopey smile. The daydream must have been a good one.

The infamous Weasley blush appeared, turning Hugo's ears and cheeks a bright red. "_That's_ none of your business."

Normally Hugo would have looked like a tomato when he blushed, but over the last year, he had charmed his naturally orange hair to a bright blue colour. The current Headmaster had tried to get Hugo to change back his hair, citing some rule that Hogwarts students were expected to keep a 'natural' hair colour. Hugo had argued that blue was natural for a metamorphagus and that Teddy Lupin had kept a shade of turquoise hair all seven years and Minerva McGonagall didn't bat an eye. Hugo won, and the blue hair stayed.

He was rather brilliant like that.

Of course, Hugo's brilliance paled in comparison to Hermione Granger-Weasley. There wasn't much Hugo could do to maintain his hair without magic over the summer, and he was hesitant to use the muggle dyes. Hermione took great pride in refusing to charm it. She'd ask Hugo to _please cut it_, and _the red looks so much better on you honey_. As a result, Hugo had let his hair grow out and it was now blue on top and orangey-red at the roots. It was an eye-sore, but Hugo wasn't going to give up the rebellion against his parents, especially his mum.

Hugo had been caught up in passive-aggressive warfare with Hermione all summer.

"_She got us _homework_ planners_," Hugo had whined at the beginning of July.

With Hugo entering OWL year and Rose entering NEWT year, Hermione had decided they both needed a summer revision schedule. Every week, Hugo had to make some progress, and Hermione would check by springing a random quiz or asking questions over dinner. She had drawn up similar revision schedules for Colin and Lily, but they chucked theirs the moment they got home. Colin had been turning down dinner invitations at the Weasleys all summer in fear that Hermione would quiz _him_.

Hugo didn't have the same luxury of leaving and escaping his mum, so he did things that he knew would annoy her. Like letting his hair grow out, blasting music, and sneaking out to London when he should be studying.

"Are you let out for good behaviour today? Or do you have more – is that _Arithmancy_ revision?"

Hugo looked annoyed. "Mum's testing me next Tuesday. I've got all weekend to catch up on two years' worth of notes."

"She's not giving you much time."

"Oh, no, I've had weeks; I just haven't bothered to look at it until now. Anyway, I deserve a break. Lily's then? I'm not sure when Mum will get back, and she'll make us _both_ study if she catches you here."

Colin quickly agreed, not wanting to get roped into doing revisions over the summer holidays. His parents were rather relaxed about OWLs, but he knew they'd expect him to work hard during the school year.

On their way to the fireplace, they ran into Ron in the kitchen. He was flipping through the sports section of The Daily Prophet and drinking tea.

"We're going to Lily's," Hugo told him. "You'll handle Mum?"

A wry smile appeared on Ron's face. He was usually Hugo's ally in escaping. "I suppose I can do that. Have fun; don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Colin was quite certain a lot of illegal and dangerous things fell under the category 'Things that Ron Weasley would do'. Ron's children were more responsible than Ron had ever been as a teenager. Really, Hugo and Lily were downright angels compared to their parents. Not that Colin would ever tell them that.

Hugo snorted. "Are you giving us permission to rob a bank?"

"If you can pull it off and be home by curfew, sure," Ron cheerfully told them. "If I don't see you by tomorrow I'll get Bill to check the vaults."

"He's nuts, no wonder he married Mum," muttered Hugo once they left the kitchen. "Probably took one too many hexes to the head."

He took a pinch of floo powder and stepped into the fireplace. "The Thicket!"

Hugo disappeared in a burst of green flames and Colin followed a few seconds behind him. He closed his eyes and made sure to keep his arms tucked in as he zipped through the floo network. Finally, he stopped.

"About time you showed up," Lily greeted them in a bored tone. She was curled up in an armchair with the family cat, Godric, and a copy of _Quidditch Illustrated_.

Colin shyly smiled and waved, immediately berating himself for looking so nervous. Colin wasn't sure why he was suddenly acting so awkward around Lily. He had always known, on some level, that Lily was a very pretty girl. It was just the past year that he had become more and more aware of the girl part.

Lily leapt out of her chair, motioning for the pair to follow her upstairs to her room. Hugo tried to close the door behind them, but it seemed that it wouldn't budge. He frowned as he fought with it, failing to pull it any closer.

"It won't move," said Lily. A scowl was across her pretty face as she stared at the offending door. "My mother thought that it wasn't _appropriate_ for me to have boys alone in my room now that I'm a _young lady_. So it's jinxed to stay open if there's a wizard in here. I should date girls, just to get away with it."

Hugo gave up trying to close the door. They all knew Ginny's jinxes were brilliant and impossible to undo. Unless they felt like blasting the door and getting a new one, but Colin didn't think the Potters would appreciate that. Besides, Ginny would probably just jinx the next one too. And make it indestructible.

"It's so stupid," she huffed. As if the door was sentiment and could understand her, she told it, "It's not like we're up here having a threesome!"

Colin's neck suddenly felt warm and couldn't look at either of his friends. He wouldn't mind a twosome with Lily.

"Moving on, we need to do something about _this_," said Hugo. He combed his fingers through his hair in frustration. "I'm thinking we go pick up some of the muggle dye and see how that works. If not, I might have to cut it. It's driving me mad."

"You're not going to let your mum win," Colin's mouth fell open.

"It's just one battle in the war," Hugo sighed. "Besides, we'll be back at Hogwarts in three weeks. She can't control me there."

"No need for that." Lily smirked as she twirled her wand between her fingers. "Molly had an internship at the Misuse of Magic Office and let it slip that they tend to ignore small bits of underage magic unless it becomes a problem."

"Are you sure?" Colin asked in slight disbelief.

"Positive," Lily said with a grin. "Now, let's fix those roots."

Hugo took the chair at Lily's desk, sitting down so she could have easy access to his hair. Hugo had taken after Ron in height and was quite tall. Lily started jabbering on about the birthday party Holly had over the weekend, a slumber party with just the girls in Gryffindor. Apparently, Holly's actual birthday was last Wednesday and she had been livid by the weekend.

" – and now Holly's talking about the Witch Code and how _real_ friends don't date other friend's ex-boyfriends – "

Colin really didn't understand girl politics. Holly and Lily didn't even like each other. They usually butted heads. They shared a dorm and shared a group of girl friends so somehow that made them friends, or pretend friends anyway.

" – stupid really, the Witch Code didn't prevent _her_ from going to Hogsmeade with Blaine last October when she _knew_ I liked him – "

Suddenly Lily's chattering broke through to him, with the sudden, awful realisation that Lily was technically Holly's friend, and apparently that meant he was off-limits due to this _code_ she kept mentioning.

"What's the Witch Code?"

Lily paused in her tirade, blinking a few times at him. "You know, don't date another friend's crush, don't date another friend's ex-boyfriend without checking with them, stuff like that. Don't you have people who are off limits?"

That was just his luck. His ex-snogging partner turns out to be super clingy and has now put him on some sort of Black List so the other girls in Gryffindor won't date him.

"The first rule of the Wizard's Code is to never tell a witch the other rules," Hugo made up, looking helplessly at Colin. He supposed he had some rules. Any so-called friend of his that dated Lily or his sisters would be hexed. He would probably be hexed back by Lily or his sisters if they ever found out about it.

"But more importantly, so none of the girls will date me now?" Colin worried.

"Why? Have your eye on someone in Gryffindor?" Lily smirked. "Don't read too much into it. Holly breaks the code all the time. I'm sure it'll be fine. By the time we go back, she'll be planning her wedding to someone else. Everyone knows she overreacts and flies off the broom handle."

He really dodged an _Avada Kedavra_ there. Holly sounded absolutely mental the more he heard about her. Planning her wedding? They were _fifteen_.

Before long, Lily had finished charming the roots of Hugo's hair. She ran her fingers through it, inspecting it for any missing clunks of red. Colin was almost tempted to ask her to do something to his hair too, just to have an excuse to let her play with it like that.

"Rose said James is throwing a party at his new flat tomorrow night," Hugo told them. "All the cousins will be there."

"Why don't my brothers ever tell me anything?" Lily pouted. "I had to learn about my own brother's party, what, third-hand?"

"That's because you're their innocent, fifteen-year-old baby sister," Colin helpfully pointed out. Lily shot him a glare.

Lily was the youngest of the Potter-Weasley cousins, getting the title being born three weeks after Hugo. As a result, the whole family coddled her and treated her like she was too young for everything. It annoyed her when they were little and that meant she was too young to play Quidditch. It certainly annoyed her now that they were older and she was too young to get invited to parties.

"I don't think any of our parents are going to let us go to James' party." Colin frowned.

"Don't be daft, of course they're not going to _let_ us," said Lily. "That's why we're not going to tell them."

Hugo looked thoughtful for a moment. "They're going to notice if all three of us disappear."

Colin let Hugo be Lily's voice of reason this time. He didn't want her to think he was boring or a stick-in-the-mud. Normally Lily came up with the hair-brained idea, Hugo worked out the logistics of pulling it off and Colin kept them from getting into _too_ much trouble over it. He was getting tired of being the responsible one and wanted to be the fun one for a change.

"That's why we're going to need to come up with an excuse, something that will fool even Aunt Hermione."

"I'll think of something good," Hugo said.

Colin couldn't shake the feeling that this was a bad idea. "Cool, I'm in."


	3. Impress Her Father

**How to Charm a Witch**

by ChatterChick

Summary: Colin Longbottom wants nothing more than to impress Lily Luna Potter. Unfortunately he has all the charm of your typical Longbottom male.

A/N: I've written a one-shot called "Passive-Aggressive Warfare" that has Hugo and functions as an outtake for this chapter if you'd like to check it out :)

There's a lot of hormone and alcohol induced antics in this chapter. As well as language. Apparently Hugo has something he needs to prove? Hope you enjoy, let me know if you have any feedback. Cheers!

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**Chapter 3: Impress Her Father**

Colin dusted the soot off of his trousers before stepping out of the fireplace at The Thicket. This time, it wasn't Lily sitting in the armchair, but her father, the famous Harry Potter, there reading the _Evening Prophet_. The fact that Harry was famous - along with a good number of adults in Colin's life, including his own dad - was one of those surreal things that Colin had gotten used to at a young age. These days, he was a little more aware that Harry Potter was technically famous for murder.

He smiled uncertainly at Lily's father. While he knew Harry was fond of him, he wasn't sure how fond he would be if it ever became clear that Colin had feelings for his only daughter. This was unexplored territory they were heading into, and Colin wished he had some sort of map.

"Hello Colin," Harry greeted, lowering the newspaper. "Lily and Hugo are upstairs."

"Thanks sir."

"It's just Harry," he said, raising his eyebrow and curiously looking at Colin.

"Um, right," Colin nervously replied. It was probably odd to start calling Harry 'sir' when he had always been 'Harry' or 'Uncle Harry'. He was trying to get away from the 'Uncle' title since he wanted Lily to stop thinking of him in that brother-like way she had in the past.

Colin stopped just short of running a hand through his hair as he dashed upstairs. He had used Wizard's Sculpting Gel to get his hair just right for the party at James'. Colin had worried that his parents might ask why he had put more effort than usual into his appearance and think something was up. They just shared a secret smile though, and asked in a not-so-subtle tone if he was _visiting Lily._

Usually, he would hotly deny any feelings for Lily whenever his mum started going on about how cute they would be together. Even if it was a lie. She just looked so smug and _happy _every time Lily was mentioned. This time, if they thought he was dressing up for Lily - _and okay, he was a little_ \- or going out on a date, then that just worked in his favour and he'd leave them to their gossiping.

Colin peeked in the doorway, finding the girl in question throwing a bunch of summer dresses onto her bed, mumbling to herself as she searched for the right one. Hugo was sitting at her desk chair, tucked safely out of the projectile range of Lily's throw.

"Hey Lily, Hugo," Colin said as he entered the room. He ducked, narrowly avoiding being hit by a pink floral thing that didn't seem like something Lily would wear, much less own. "How are things?"

"I have nothing to wear!" Lily cried out in frustration.

By luck, Colin caught Hugo's eye before opening his mouth. Hugo was frantically shaking his head, as if to warn him from commenting on the obvious. Clearly he had been through this routine before.

"Normally you don't ask us for fashion advice," Hugo cut her off. "Don't you have girl friends for this type of thing?"

"Athena's on holiday and Kavita's at her aunt's wedding reception," Lily listed off her two usual cohorts for this type of gathering. "I didn't think it would be a good idea to invite Natalie or Holly..."

"Good call on that," Colin swiftly agreed. He and Hugo weren't that close to the other blokes in Gryffindor. Idly, he supposed he could have owl'd Tomas McLaggen. Not that he was ever that keen on his company.

"I suppose I'll just have to raid Roxy's closet," Lily brightly told them. She had moved on to packing up tiny vials of make-up and putting them in her purse. "Oh, Colin, what did you tell your parents about tonight?"

"I just told them I might spend the night at Hugo's? They probably won't come looking for me, but if they ask your parents? What did you tell them?" Colin directed his question to Hugo. On the odd chance that one of his parents saw Ron or Hermione in the next week, he didn't want them to find out he hadn't actually spent the night.

"Our parents think the three of us are visiting Roxy, she's agreed to tell them we lost track of time and just stayed there. She'll even send a patronus so they don't worry," Lily smugly replied. "She's going to James' too and said she didn't mind if we wanted to tag along and sleep at her place after."

Roxanne Weasley was one of the many cousins of the Potter-Weasley clan. Colin knew her a little from growing up around Lily and Hugo, as well as from around Hogwarts since she had been a fellow Gryffindor. She also happened to live with another cousin, Dominique Weasley. As soon as Lily was packed, the three of them set out for Roxanne's place.

Harry peered over the top of the top of the _Evening Prophet_ at them. If he suspected they were up to anything, he didn't show it. Sometimes Colin wondered if Harry was blind to how devious his little girl was. If Ginny was around, they wouldn't have gotten away without a five-minute interrogation.

"Have fun, love." Harry smiled at her. "And say hi to Roxy and Dominique for us."

xXxXx

James, along with three of his friends, had rented a town house in a gated wizarding community, Helga's Parks, in London. Dominique had told James about the place when she noticed the former tenants had moved out and a 'For Rent' sign appeared in the window. She and Roxanne lived in the same area. Which worked out well for them since they could just walk back to their place after the party and stay there for the night. There would be no sneaking home and trying to hide the fact that they were drinking to a former tavern owner (in his case), the Head Auror (in Lily's case) or all-around genius (in Hugo's case).

The trio spent most of the evening playing drinking snap with Roxanne, Dominique and their roommates. It was basically exploding snap with alcohol. Although James' party technically started at nine, Roxy said not to bother going until eleven otherwise no one else would be there.

When they arrived at the party, Colin was already feeling a pleasant warmth and light-headedness.

It was clear that these were mostly James' friends, everyone was a good three or four years older than them. He tried not to feel too out of place beside Lily and Hugo. The next youngest were Rose and her group of friends, who at seventeen, were actually allowed to buy and drink hard liquor in the wizarding world. Colin, Lily and Hugo weren't supposed to have anything harder than butterbeer or elf wine.

Not that that stopped them.

Hugo had managed to nick an old bottle of Danielson's Firewhisky from his parent's liquor cabinet. It was a rather cheap firewhisky in the wizarding world, nothing compared to the Odgen's Old Firewhisky their parents usually preferred. Lily poured a generous amount into three red plastic cups and handed them out.

"This seems like a lot of liquor," Colin protested, trying to judge how much was in the cup. At least a quarter, maybe a third. That was on top of whatever amount Roxanne and Dominique had already given them in a green drink they were mixing called 'Witch's Brew'. He didn't want to spend his first alcoholic experience throwing up in James' toilet. Or holding back Lily's hair as she threw up.

"We're Weasleys," Hugo informed him, as if that was news to Colin. "We can hold our alcohol like a goblin can hold his gold. You Longbottoms might be lightweights."

That was a challenge if Colin ever saw one. Bloody prat. He snorted. "I'll have you know, my mother's family ran the Leaky for generations. I know a thing or two."

Although bartending was supposedly in his blood, Colin actually knew very little about alcohol, especially about drinking it. With a false bravado, Colin tipped back the offered glass of firewhisky. He sputtered, not expecting it to burn quite as much as the name suggested. Smoke poured out of his nostrils, causing them to feel like they were on fire.

"Ew, no we shouldn't drink it straight! It's just like Potions, one part firewhisky, one part coke - " Lily picked up a bottle of coke that had been left on the table for mixed cocktails and diluted the drink, making it much more tolerable after that. Even if it left a smoky aftertaste in his mouth.

They were interrupted by two of James' roommates, Owen Wood and Leah Finnigan. The pair had been in Gryffindor and had just finished their last year of Hogwarts. Colin was a little glad that James and his friends graduated. They could be right gits at times and were rather full of themselves.

"Well damn," Owen let his eyes roam over Lily. "You're worth getting hexed in the face by James."

Leah punched Owen in the shoulder. "Prat. We all have to live together for at _least_ the next twelve months; it's not going to be a fun year if you mess around with his kid sister before the boxes have been unpacked!"

"Try again in eleven months," Lily playfully responded.

Colin couldn't tell if she liked the attention or was just playing along with it. _He_ certainly didn't like the way Owen was ogling Lily. He felt something bubble up in his chest, feeling like it was about to explode.

"Or never," Colin added.

"Oooh look, it's the Professor's kid!" Owen said, suddenly realized that Colin and Hugo were standing next to Lily. "We should get him properly smashed. It's not like Longbottom can give us a hard time over it now that we've got our NEWTs!"

"We should totally corrupt him," Leah smirked. "Give him a proper lesson in magical plants."

"Hey Longbottom, do you know the Muggles have their _own_ magical mushrooms?" Owen asked, talking down to him as if Colin was a kid.

"Yeah well - " Colin was abruptly cut short by Lily grabbing his hand and pulling him away. Surprised at the sudden physical contact, Colin allowed her. Hugo reluctantly trailed after them when Lily gave him a sharp look over her shoulder.

"Why'd you have to drag us away? I had a really good one," protested Colin.

Hugo smirked, "Yeah, I was going to ask if the studies that linked smoking monkshood to erectile dysfunction had any merit."

"Is that a real study?" Colin asked.

"Na, I just wanted to make him mad."

"If you two really want to go back and continue your little 'who's wand is bigger' competition then be my guest." Lily crossed her arms and frowned at them. She finished the rest of her drink and passed the empty cup to Hugo. "_I'm_ going to dance."

With that, she walked away, flipping her red hair over her freckled shoulders.

"It might be worth it," Hugo eyed Owen thoughtfully. "Not so much for you though. If you let Lily dance alone for too long, she's bound to find another partner."

"How did you – "

"I'm a genius," Hugo smugly informed him, "I know everything."

Lily beamed at him when Colin joined her. "Come dance with me!"

He had no idea how to dance. There was never any reason to dance at Hogwarts and this was the first party of this nature he had ever attended. He looked around, trying to see what the other guys were doing. Bobbing the head and knees seemed important to dancing. Lily was much more graceful and fluid, shaking and moving in time with the bass. She knew all the words and would sing along, not that Colin could always hear her over the speakers. Other groups drifted on and off the space cleared for dancing, occasionally joining them. Mostly it was just him and Lily.

She kept smiling at him, her brown eyes sparkling up at him as they danced, her face so close he could count every individual freckle. He could easily close in the space between them and kiss her. He could blame it on the alcohol later if Lily rejected him, and try to salvage their friendship.

The moment passed and Lily was twirling and laughing, grabbing his hands and placing them on her hips. His fingers tingled where they held on to her.

He felt like a rather poor excuse for a Gryffindor. Even liquid courage couldn't help him.

"Is this awkward?" He cursed himself for asking the moment the question left his lips. If things weren't awkward before, they were about to be. He desperately hoped that Lily didn't say -

"Yeah!" Lily shouted over the music.

Colin's heart felt like it was somewhere in the bottom of his stomach and his cheeks felt like they were on fire.

"It's really hot in here!"

Realizing that she had misheard him, Colin smiled politely and asked if she wanted him to get her any water. He purposely kept the conversation light after that, still recovering from the earlier sting.

After two in the morning, the three of them stumbled their way back to Roxanne's place. There were groups of teenagers and young adults milling about the street. This area was really popular for witches and wizards moving away from their parents and Hogwarts for the first time. There was the odd older couple or crazy kneazle witch, but they put silencing charms around their town house and ignored the chaos in the late hours of the night.

"Oohh, I recognize him! He's the old Ravenclaw keeper!" Hugo said, before loudly shouting, "_FUCK RAVENCLAW_!"

The boy narrowed his eyes, as if trying to place the three of them. He clearly failed when he said, "Well, screw Slytherin!"

"Yeah! Screw Slytherin!" Hugo tilted his head back and started laughing.

Lily and Colin dragged Hugo away before he could start any more fights. They were among the few under-age, and thus wand-less, wizards around. Colin also wasn't too keen on seeing the former Ravenclaw slur the words of a hex and have one of them accidentally coughing up slugs or something.

"I could take him," Hugo snickered. "Wandless and with my feet tied behind my arse."

Lily threw her arms around the pair of them, it seemed partially for support and partially in a display of affection. She tilted her head back as she drunkenly sang one of the latest songs from the Rampaging Hippogryffs.

Colin felt a little lost and couldn't remember which house belonged to Dominique and Roxanne. All of the terraces looked the same and with the winding streets, Colin felt like he was walking in circles. Luckily Lily knew the area and after ten minutes, led them up to one of the houses.

"Are you sure it's this one?" Colin asked.

"That's the one!" Lily slurred. "Roxy's place!"

"It's locked," said Hugo.

"I bet we can climb through a window, no one ever thinks to lock those."

They propped open the window and Colin climbed in first. Then Hugo helped Lily up through the window and Colin helped her down. She swayed a little and Colin dumped her in one of the kitchen chairs.

The place looked different in the dark, and Colin walked into an armchair that he could have sworn wasn't there earlier."Maybe we should turn on a light. _Ow_!"

He slid his hand along the wall, looking for the light switch that was common in these new Muggle-converted types of houses. Luckily, he managed to find the switch for the stairwell.

"I don't know how Roxy can stand this," Hugo commented as they climbed the stairs. He nodded to the frilly, pink cat plates that lined the hallway. "I mean, Dominique's girly, but this is completely nuts!"

Finally they reached the first bedroom on the top landing. The inside was just as pink and frilly as the stairwell. Hugo deposited Lily into the bed, draping a blanket over her. Dominique had said she would be spending the night at her boyfriend's, so Lily could take her bed while the boys slept on the couches downstairs.

"This isn't Dominique's room," Lily sleepily murmured.

There was a loud bang in the kitchen, startling all three of them. It sounded like the front door had been blasted in. Abandoning Lily in the bed, Colin and Hugo rushed into the hallway.

"What the hell?" Hugo hissed.

"AURORS! Come out with your wands over your head!" A familiar voice yelled up the stairs.

Lily stumbled into the hallway after them. "Daddy's here?"

Oh. Hell. No.

"_Lily_?!" Harry lowered his wand. He and another auror - who Colin recognized to be his mum's best friend, Ernie Macmillan - were both standing at the foot of the staircase. "I got a floo-call that a couple of 'hooligans' broke into Madame Umbridge's town house. The neighbours were keeping an eye out since she's on holiday. What the hell are you three doing here?"

The three of them exchanged wide-eyed glances. "We, um, thought this was Roxy's place."

"Roxy's place, how did you think - " Harry trailed off in disbelief. "Are you _drunk_?"

Lily gave an exaggerated head shake. "No!"

Hugo's lips twitched upwards before he put on a more serious expression. "Of course not, Uncle Harry!"

Colin thought they were doing a very good job at acting sober. Harry probably couldn't even tell that they had been drinking tonight. That was, until Colin made the mistake of sharing a look with Lily. The two of them immediately cracked up laughing, soon joined by Hugo.

"I'll handle them," Harry said with a sigh. He crossed his arms and looked at the three of them, raising his left eyebrow in a way that seemed to signify trouble. Suddenly things weren't so funny anymore. "You three are coming with me."


	4. Share Her Pain

**How to Charm a Witch**

by ChatterChick

Summary: Colin Longbottom wants nothing more than to impress Lily Luna Potter. Unfortunately he has all the charm of your typical Longbottom male.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Share Her Pain**

Colin, Hugo and Lily were escorted back to the Potters' home, and the three of them were squished together on one of the couches in the sitting room. Being caught in Madame Umbridge's home by Harry and Ernie had sobered them up rather quickly. At least Harry didn't decide to completely scare them and take them to the holding cells at the Ministry. For a few tense moments, Colin thought his parents would have to come pick him up from the Auror Department in the middle of the night.

Harry excused himself to send out a patronus to Colin and Hugo's parents, leaving Ginny Potter to supervise them. There was complete silence as they waited for their parents to arrive and to learn just how much trouble they were in.

"He's just going to get my dad, right Aunt Ginny?" Hugo worried. If there was one person in the entire wizarding world who Hugo didn't like to anger – as much as he pushed her buttons – it was his mother. "There's no need – "

"_Where is he_?" A voice from the kitchen shrieked.

The three of them sunk into their seats at the arrival of Hermione Granger-Weasley. Her bushy brown hair, usually controlled by beauty potions in the daytime, seemed to come alive with anger. Her grey outer robes barely concealed the baby blue striped pyjamas bottoms peeking out from underneath. It looked like she had been dragged out of bed to come deal with her wayward son. Which, given the time, she probably had been.

"_Uncle Harry_," Hugo whined, pleading with his uncle for mercy. "She's going to kill me!"

"Trust me, Hugo Arthur Weasley, when I'm done with you, you're going to wish I had killed you instead," Hermione seethed, "Dolores Umbridge? You broke into Madame Umbridge's_house_?!"

Ginny had a suspicious sounding cough that was probably her attempt to cover up a laugh. "Sorry," she sheepishly grinned when Hermione rounded on her.

"Normally I would make them apologize to Madame Umbridge and do some chores for her, but given her history – " Harry shared a pointed look with Hermione.

She seemed to pick up on whatever silent message Harry had conveyed, and said, "No, we can't really send them over. I'll have a little chat with Umbridge when she returns from Spain. I'm sure she'll find it in her heart to forgive some harmless teenage _stupidity_."

Ginny walked away in a coughing fit the moment Hermione said 'heart', leaving Harry and Hermione to deal with the three of them. Colin found himself wondering just who Dolores Umbridge was and why the adults seemed torn between amusement and horror that they had accidentally broke into her house. She sounded like some big-shot at the Ministry. He hoped she didn't get them into too much trouble over it.

Hugo, who never could resist himself, asked, "And will you find it in your heart to forgive some harmless teenage stupidity?"

The glare he was given from his mother immediately silenced him. There was still a higher authority Hugo would have to appease, and she was much stricter than the law.

They were interrupted by the fireplace turning emerald green and Neville emerging from the flames. Colin felt his stomach sink. While Hermione might yell at Hugo, Neville rarely yelled at him. His was more a quiet anger. This time, Colin couldn't tell what his dad thought of the situation. His face remained neutral as Harry and Hermione filled him in and tried to think of punishments for the three of them. Colin dryly supposed that since Harry was Head Auror and Hermione was Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, they were being punished by some of the highest legal authorities in the British Ministry for Magic.

Unless they wanted to put them in front of the entire Wizagamot for some drunken antics. That was a bit excessive though.

"There are always things to do on the grounds," Neville suggested, "Hagrid's getting on in age – "

Hermione shook her head, her bushy curls flying back and forth. "Hagrid's too soft on them, he'll just have them drinking tea and eating rock cakes by noon."

"I think eating rock cakes are punishment enough," Lily quipped. She fell silent again at the disappointed look Harry gave her.

"They'll spend the week at Hogwarts as punishment," Hermione decided, "Running whatever errands the professors need. That should suffice and I doubt Madame Umbridge could argue they're getting off lightly. The Ministry rarely punishes teenagers for being stupid."

"If that's decided, I'm going to take Colin home so we can get some sleep. Ten o'clock tomorrow on the grounds?" Neville confirmed with Harry and Hermione before escorting Colin to the Floo.

"The Green House," Colin said as he tossed the Floo powder into the fire. Although he was still terrified of the conversation that awaited him at home with his parents, Colin was grateful that he was a little closer to going to bed. As he had started to sober up, a pounding headache had formed in his head and he could barely keep his eyes open any more.

There was a tense few seconds while Colin waited for his dad to come through the Floo, wondering what he was going to say. When Neville appeared, he actually cracked a smile and started laughing.

"I didn't think I could keep a straight face much longer and I didn't want to laugh in front of Hermione when she's worked up like that," Neville explained. "I imagine that's why Ginny left the room?"

"She kept laughing every time this Umbridge woman was mentioned - is she someone important?"

"She was our old Defense professor," Neville off-handedly explained, "no one really liked her much. Just how did you three end up in her house?"

"Lily got lost," Colin mumbled, cheeks burning, "and she lead us to the wrong house. She thought it was her cousin's place. Wait, so you're not _mad_?"

"I can't say I'm _happy_, but no, I'm not mad," Neville calmly replied. "I don't mind the drinking, I reckon you're going to do that anyway, but the lying and sneaking around I could do without. So next time, just come home and go to bed."

"Really?" Colin asked, a little excited truth be told. He could do this again without having to worry about getting caught by his parents. Maybe Lily and Hugo could work something out with their families too.

"If you come home throwing up, your mother and I won't be impressed," Neville said with a tired grin, "and we expect you to use better judgement in the future. Now off to bed, I think tomorrow's going to be a long day."

xXxXx

The next morning, Colin was abruptly woken by the sound of the magical vacuum just outside his room. Colin winced as he collapsed back into his pillows. There was a dull throb in his temple and his stomach protested at any sort of movement. The noise continued, keeping him from drifting off to sleep and further irritating the headache. Every so often, the vacuum would be repeatedly whacked against the wall, as if it were trying to get a speck of dirt just in the crack where the wall met the carpet.

Annoyed, Colin rolled out of bed to confront whoever had decided to vacuum at the ungodly hour of seven am.

"Good morning, love." Hannah cheerfully smiled at him. "Did I _wake you_?"

It was then that Colin realized that this was going to be a very long and very bad day.

Hannah Longbottom was bloody terrifying when she was upset. She never raised her voice. Instead she got this disappointed _look_ and just sighed a lot. Like she had expected better of him and he went and dashed all her hopes and dreams. He would have preferred to be yelled at because at least then he didn't have to feel like he had crucio'ed a puppy in front of her.

She was particularly ruthless when it came to household chores that morning. Alice and Grace were given the task of organizing the pots and pans, something both did with a sense of glee as they dropped them and provoked the pounding headache. Colin's chore that morning was especially unpleasant.

He gagged as he scooped up the owl pellets. The smell of the bird cage made bile rise up in his throat. He had had difficulty keeping his stomach settled all morning and had eaten very little at breakfast. This just might do it. "Can't you just vanish the owl droppings? I'm going to hurl."

Gilly, the Longbottom owl, hooted reproachfully from the windowsill. Apparently she agreed with Hannah's choice in punishment.

"Maybe next time you'll think twice before drinking that much," Hannah tittered, hands on hips. She eventually took pity on him and vanished the owl pellets before putting fresh straw down for Gilly.

With that, he felt a little hopeful that his mum was starting to soften. So Colin asked, "Do you happen to have any hangover cure in your potions closet?"

"Nice try. You're working that off the Muggle way."

After that, Colin was allowed to spend the rest of the morning recovering from his hangover. By the time it was ten o'clock and he was expected to go to Hogwarts, there was only a sharp pain in his head if he moved too much and his stomach no longer felt like it was doing somersaults. He was exhausted from only sleeping four hours, and was hoping the day would pass quickly and he could go home and nap.

He was in much better shape than a groggy Hugo and an irritated Lily, both looked like they had just been hauled out of bed. Lily was wearing a large pair of sunglasses and hissed like a vampire the moment they walked outside the Longbottom house. They had a half-hour walk to Hogwarts where Neville let them onto the grounds and directed them to the greenhouses.

"This is like detention," Lily grumbled as Neville unlocked the Greenhouse Four, "in the summer!"

"There's no difference in my world," Colin muttered. Being grounded by his parents or serving detention with his parents amounted to the same thing. Cleaning bedpans or weeding the greenhouse.

"This can't be legal."

Neville chuckled. "Punishing your kids for misbehaving? Definitely legal. What's _not_ legal is breaking and entering, or drinking hard liquor underage for that matter."

"You can't prove the latter," Hugo smugly informed him, "we could just have a really weak tolerance for butterbeer."

"You're right, but I can suspect it."

Neville left them alone for most of the morning, and Colin suspected that his dad was just humouring Hermione's punishment with no real intention of making it hard. They finished the weeding within an hour and spent the next just sitting in the shade behind the greenhouses, sharing stories of what their parents said after they went home.

"Mum just yelled a lot," Hugo shared. "I tuned her out after a while. It's a bit rich to hear her tell me I'm not supposed to lie to my parents when she's the one who wiped her parents' memories and sent them to Australia for the rest of their lives."

Hugo liked to compare his current life to his parents' past adventures to remind them that he wasn't _that_ bad. It had gotten worse over the years as they learned more about their parents in History of Magic.

"Dad was pretty chill about it, said he'd rather I be honest in the future and not sneak around. Mum wasn't impressed that we got that smashed, but she can't stay mad for long." He had the more laid back parents of the three of them. Working at the school with hundreds of teenagers had made them fairly calm. Chances were that any trouble Colin had gotten into was something they had already seen before to some degree.

Lily shifted her hands so they blocked out the harsh sunlight. "Dad just lectured me and told me to be more responsible next time. Oh, did either of you see the _Daily Prophet_ this morning?"

Hugo blearily shook his head. "I was barely functional when Mum shoved me in the fireplace, never mind taking a look at the paper."

"Mum was having kneazles at breakfast over it," Lily snickered, pulling the paper out of her handbag. "We're on page seven!"

She passed it to Colin and Hugo, and both quickly flipped to the Lifestyle section where gossip was commonly printed.

_Young, Wild and Troubled?_

_by Rita Skeeter_

_Harry Potter. Ginevra Potter. Hermione Granger-Weasley. Ronald Weasley. Neville Longbottom. These highly influential war-heroes in our world seem to have it all. Successful careers, marriages and children. But at what cost?_

_In the early hours of this Saturday morning, Harry and Ginevra Potter's daughter, Lily Potter, along Hugo Weasley, the son of Ron and Hermione Weasley and Colin Longbottom, the son of Neville and Hannah Longbottom, were caught breaking into Dolores Umbridge's home after an evening of underaged drinking (along with rumours of other illegal substances). They were apprehended at the scene by Head Auror Harry Potter himself._

_"It's clear to me that these children are acting out for attention from their parents," Dolores Umbridge told the Daily Prophet when she was contacted for a comment earlier today. "Of course I found it in my heart to forgive them."_

_Indeed, these are busy parents. Last month, Ginny Potter clocked many late nights here at the Daily Prophet while her husband is often called away to work odd hours. One can only speculate how this has lead to their daughter to acting out to seek their attention. It was almost as if she knew her father would be on call that night..._

The rest of the article was not-so-subtle digs at the parenting skills of the Potters and Weasleys. Ginny Potter was the Quidditch Correspondent for the Daily Prophet while Rita Skeeter wrote news and gossip. The two witches have had an on-going feud for years, especially since the Potters and their friends were some of Skeeter's favourite people to generate gossip about. This article in particular was a slap in the face to Ginny.

Lily grinned as they read it, "I'd watch my back if I were Skeeter."

At around noon, Neville came back to check on the work they had done. "Excellent, you were much faster than I expected you would be."

"So are we free to go today?" Lily asked. "We, ah, learned our lesson."

Neville looked amused, "And what lesson is that?"

"Something about drinking responsibly," Lily airily responded.

"Yes that was probably the root of your trouble," Neville dryly remarked, "But you're not free to go just yet. Hagrid's prepared tea and sandwiches, you're expected for the afternoon."

"I thought we weren't supposed to see Hagrid," Hugo smirked. "Mum said he'd be 'too easy' on us."

Neville laughed. "Just don't tell your mother I let you off so easy. I still think that as long you three aren't running student rebellions under my nose, you're doing fine. She might not see it that way."

"Don't give us ideas," Lily cheekily responded, "we still have three years left."

"I think Hugo's Army has a very nice sound to it. We could call it the Herbology Association so no one suspects a thing."

Neville rolled his eyes and sent them over to Hagrid's hut for the rest of their 'punishment'.

"Lily, Hugo and Colin," the old half-giant beamed at the three of them. "Yer dad said yeh might be stoppin' by."

Being half-giant and half-wizard gave Hagrid a rather prolonged life. Colin had seen pictures his parents had taken over the years, and it seemed that Hagrid hadn't aged much in the twenty-some years since his parents finished Hogwarts.

They spent a rather enjoyable afternoon having tea with Hagrid and telling him just want they were being punished for, much to Hagrid's amusement. And Hagrid might have accidentally given Hugo some new dirt on his parents. A rather interesting tale about a dragon named Norbert...


	5. Defend Her Honour

**How to Charm a Witch**

by ChatterChick

Summary: Colin Longbottom wants nothing more than to impress Lily Luna Potter. Unfortunately he has all the charm of your typical Longbottom male.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Defend Her Honour**

"You'll look after your sisters," Hannah fretted.

The Longbottom family was at platform nine and three quarters where all four of the Longbottom children would be boarding the Hogwarts Express to go to school. Colin and Anthony were already wearing their school robes, trimmed with crimson red and canary yellow respectively. Alice and Gracie were dressed in the plain black robes of the unsorted first years. After they were sorted, the black trim of their robes would magically adjust to their new house colour.

Colin cocked his head to the side, slightly exasperated. "Mum, you work at the school. You'll see them every day!"

He had been through the same routine two years ago when Anthony first started Hogwarts. Of course, Anthony was a little needier than the twins and hung off of Colin the whole trip. Looking at the evil grins on Alice and Gracie's faces, Colin was hoping to ditch them on the train so he wouldn't be responsible for whatever mischief they got into. Looking after his sisters was going to be a nightmare. If he had any luck, they'd be sorted into Hufflepuff and become Anthony's problem.

"I know, but the train ride – " She did this every year at the platform. It was like she temporarily lost her mind and forgot that she worked at the school. "And not every day. Merlin, I hope they don't get sent to the hospital wing that often!"

Neville chuckled as he wrapped an arm around Hannah's waist and kissed her cheek. "They'll be fine, love."

His parents were doing that love-sick teenager thing again, and it was worse because this time they were out in public were literally _everyone_ knew them. Colin nervously glanced around, but was relieved that everyone was too caught up in their own goodbyes to pay the Longbottoms much attention.

"We'll see you in a few hours then," said Neville. "Have fun! And try not to worry about the sorting too much."

This was directed more at Alice and Gracie. The girls were close, but they were rather different in personality. Alice was the bolder, outgoing twin while Gracie was shier and happier to let her take the lead. The ongoing worry that summer had been that they might be split up into different houses at Hogwarts.

"Try not to cry, Mum," Colin cheekily said as he waved goodbye. Hannah tended to get emotional over these types of things, saying that they 'grew up too fast'.

As expected, Hannah started sniffing that her babies were all grown up and the Longbottom children took that as their cue to board the train. Anthony turned right and disappeared into the next car, looking for his friends. Alice and Gracie also disappeared, probably to look for anyone they knew starting Hogwarts this year. Colin's parents had made sure the four of them grew up knowing a lot of other children so they had plenty of friends. When Colin had started Hogwarts, he had started with a good half-dozen other children that he already knew.

Colin went left and walked further down the train's narrow corridor until he found the fifth compartment on the left in the seventh car. It was the usual compartment he met his friends in and he hoped it wouldn't be taken by someone else. There was only one person there when he arrived and he was sure his face lit up like a lighthouse.

"Lily, don't you have prefect duties or something?" Colin asked, trying to act natural. He knew Hugo had been made the male Gryffindor prefect – something that annoyed Hugo greatly – but he hadn't thought to ask Lily.

"_Me_? Dear Godric, no! Why would your dad make me a prefect?" Lily laughed. "Potters never get the badge. Dad says it's because we're too much trouble."

That made Colin feel infinitely better, knowing that he wasn't missing out spending time with Lily as her fellow prefect. Now they could make fun of Hugo together for being such a goody two-shoes. Not that Hugo was an angel by any means. Professors just seemed to like him because he was smart and witty.

And being the kid of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley might have helped his case with a few, younger star-struck professors.

"There you are!" Tomas McLaggen grinned as he walked into their compartment. "I've been looking all over. Col, I expected you to just show up for the feast."

"No, I always take the train," Colin explained, sharing an exasperated eye roll with Lily. He didn't bother taking the train home for the Christmas or Easter holidays since he lived in Hogsmeade and could just walk home with his parents. But he always took the train to Hogwarts in September and back to London in June. It was tradition. His parents wanted him and his siblings to have as much of a 'normal' school experience as possible. "And we always sit in this compartment."

Tomas brushed him off and immediately sat next to Lily, asking her how her summer holidays had been with a huge, white smile.

Colin normally didn't have a problem with Tomas. They were dormmates and got along well enough. Tomas tended to be full of himself, but he was easy enough to get along with if you kept the conversation focussed on him.

There was just the tiny, minor, _totally insignificant_ detail that Tomas played Quidditch and seemed to have his eye on Lily. He was always showing off, well, more than usual, whenever Lily appeared in the picture. Tomas was the Gryffindor Seeker, and if that didn't make him enough of a star around the common room, he had taken to keeping the snitch after practices and playing with it. He also happened to be very handsome and he knew it. The fact that Lily didn't pay him much attention or feed his ego like the other girls in their year only seemed to make him more determined to chase after her.

It was incredibly frustrating for Colin to watch.

For a few seconds, Tomas tried to sincerely take an interest in listening to Lily talk about her family's holiday in July. He even asked a polite question. It didn't last long before Tomas started telling them about a Quidditch Camp he attended in Germany.

"It was invitation only; one of the recruiters watched our last match against Ravenclaw. I'm surprised you didn't get one," Tomas said.

Lily stiffened at the rather back-handed compliment and Colin tried not to feel too smug. Tomas might be good-looking and a Quidditch star, but he clearly lacked observation skills. The entire time Tomas was going on about this camp, and offering Lily pointers on _her_ position, her lips were pursed and Colin could tell Tomas was grating on her nerves. The door slid open again, and Colin hoped that it was one of their other friends who would make this compartment more bearable. As his luck would have it, Holly Summers and her friend Natalie Cinderford were on the other side.

Holly beamed at the other members of the compartment, "Hello Tomas, Lily - " her nose scrunched up like he was a pile of dragon dung. "Colin."

"Hello Holly," Colin politely replied with the others. She ignored him and sat down on the other side of Tomas, leaving Natalie to sit next to Colin.

"I guess none of you made prefect then," Holly said with a slight smirk. Colin decided not to point out the obvious that she hadn't made it either. "I wonder who got Quidditch captain since Roxanne graduated. Tomas? I mean, you're the best player left on the team."

"Oh no, that went to Lily!" Tomas cheerfully said. He didn't bother denying that he was the 'best' player on the team. "We'll help each other with Quidditch practices and plays of course."

"Oh, well I guess it makes sense since she's a _Potter_," Holly said in a rather accusatory voice. This was new. Usually Holly kept her jealousy of Lily under tighter wraps. "Professor Longbottom probably just assumes she's like the rest of them."

"You know, I'm sitting right here," Lily huffed. It really irked her when people suggested she was handed everything on a golden platter because she had famous parents. Colin could sympathize. These were usually the same people who thought he had it easy for being the professor's kid.

"Lily made the most saves out of all the keepers," Colin defended, "and she got Player of the Year for Gryffindor. It's not that much of a surprise."

"Whatever," Holly said, flippantly dismissing him. "We'll see once the season starts. I'm sure Tomas will be pulling the rest of the team to victory again."

Colin was starting to wonder what he had ever seen in her to begin with. She was horrible to his best friend.

Holly leaned over to grab something out of her bag on the floor. The first two buttons of her white blouse were undone, exposing a generous amount of cleavage.

Oh, right.

He looked up to find Lily arching her eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. Her face seemed to scream, '_Really_ _Colin?!_'

"C'mon, let's go see what happened to Kavita and Athena," Colin suggested, offering Lily a chance to leave the compartment. Plus it got him away from Tomas and Holly too, which was a good thing in his book.

"Thanks," Lily said once they were away. "I thought I was going to go mad. He's not even that great! Al always catches the snitch before him, and the only reason we won last year was because the chasers - "

"Lily, breathe," Colin reminded her as she worked herself up into a rant. "Holly was just trying to goad you."

"Argh!" Lily threw out her hands in frustration. "She's such a bitch!"

"I don't remember her being that way before," Colin admitted. Holly was always opinionated and never held back, but he had never seen her go after one of her 'friends' like that.

"Oh, she's gotten worse. At least before she pretended we were friends. She's been trying to exclude me from things all August, you know? Not that I really care." Lily gave a half-hearted shrug. "I've got you and Hugo and Kavita and Athena. She needs me a lot more than I need her."

Kavita Thomas and Athena Corner-Boot were a pair of Gryffindor girls who Colin and Lily had known since childhood. Kavita's parents, Dean and Padma Thomas, and Athena's fathers, Michael Corner and Terry Boot, had been members of the infamous Dumbledore's Army. Colin didn't have any cousins, but the children of the other DA members, jokingly given the moniker the 'Junior DA', felt like a rather large extended family at times.

"I think we're both in her bad book these days," Colin tried to lighten the subject. "Although, I seem to have _forgotten_ why."

"Maybe that's why she hates me," Lily laughed, "I broke the Witch Code and stole her ex – what exactly were you?"

Despite Lily's joking, he wondered if there was some grain of truth in that. The howler had complained that he remembered Lily's birthday and not Holly's. That might explain Holly's sudden hostility towards Lily, especially if she had picked up that Colin really did have feelings for her. He felt bad if he had put Lily in a rocky situation with her dormmates.

Colin laughed as shook his head, "I'm not sure. I'm sorry if ending things put you in an awkward position."

"Don't be. I'm glad you two aren't together anymore," Lily said, she paused for a moment and bit her lip, "that was rather nauseating last year."

"We weren't that bad!" Colin protested. He had only snogged Holly a few times in classrooms where their friends couldn't see and mock them.

"That's what you think," Lily snickered. "I had to share a dorm with her! She had her wedding dress picked out - "

"Stop it!" Colin groaned. He didn't want to know just how far Holly's girlish fantasies went.

"She named your children, two girls by the way, Lavender and Jasmine Longbottom. She thought it was just _adorable_ if all the women in your life had plant names since the Longbottoms are just _so_ good at Herbology."

"My mum and sisters don't have plant names so her plan fails there," Colin shrugged. His parents subscribed to the 'Potter naming method'; he and his siblings were all named after a combination of family members and war-heroes. Alice and Gracie were both named for their deceased grandmothers. He knew he was named for a wizard named Colin Creevey who had died at the Battle of Hogwarts. In an attempt to be smooth, he pointed out, "You have a flower name."

"Nothing gets past you, does it?" Lily wryly raised an eyebrow.

The train conveniently jerked at that moment, knocking them into each other. Somehow, he had ended up with Lily between his arms, pinned between him and the outside wall of one of the compartments. He had gained a couple of inches over the summer and now Lily was shorter than him. Her head was tilted up and her brown eyes were looking up at him. She was biting her lower lip again, drawing his attention from her eyes down towards her lip.

_This would be a really good moment to kiss her, _his brain reminded him.

But before Colin could say or do anything, he was interrupted by a rather annoying duo.

"Hello," Gracie grinned at the pair of them. She could pull off the innocent look a little more than Alice could. Which wasn't saying much.

Alice's eyes darted between Colin and Lily and she seemed to jump to some twisted conclusion. He could see it the way her grin turned from almost-angelic to demonic. Colin slowly closed his eyes and hoped Alice would keep her mouth shut for once. He reluctantly backed away so Lily could be free.

"Hi Alice, Gracie," Lily kindly greeted his sisters. "Are you excited for your sorting tonight?"

To cover up her nerves about the sorting, Alice resorted to her usual bratty behaviour. "Yes! I'd like to be a Gryffindor, so I can spend more time with my _favourite_ brother!"

Colin snorted.

"I used to feel the same way," Lily conspiratorially told them, "and then James dumped a bucket of ice water over my head in the common room. Al was my favourite after that."

"Colin wouldn't do that to us," Alice confidently told her, "we've got too much dirt on him."

A sense of dread crept into Colin's chest. He wasn't sure what 'dirt' Alice was talking about and that just made him more concerned. He didn't want to ask in front of Lily either, since it was probably something embarrassing.

"Oh really?" Lily asked, giving a teasing grin to Colin. "Like what?"

"Can't say," said Gracie, "or we won't be able to use it."

Alice stuck a package of Bertie Bott's in front of them. "Want some?"

"Sure," said Lily, sticking out her hand for the twins to pour a few into. She picked through them, probably hoping that one of them was a decent flavour. Colin had had everything from raspberry to cowpie.

"Wait," Colin said, looking suspiciously at his sisters. "It's probably from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!"

"I think I'd recognize my uncle's joke stuff," Lily laughed, as she held out her hand to Colin. "I've gotten enough of it for birthdays and holidays. It's just a regular package, see? The joke ones are smaller."

Trusting Lily, he popped a yellow one - hopefully lemon flavour - into his mouth.

Lily and his sisters cackled as Colin turned into a giant yellow pygmy puff.

* * *

A/N: Holly has no blood relation to Lavender Brown, but I liked the reference of her naming her kid Lavender since Lav inspired the character.


	6. Try Her Hobby

**How to Charm a Witch**

by ChatterChick

Summary: Colin Longbottom wants nothing more than to impress Lily Luna Potter. Unfortunately he has all the charm of your typical Longbottom male.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Try Her Hobby**

The first week of term passed by swiftly and Colin didn't have another chance to catch Lily alone. While he had seen Lily and Hugo almost every day during the summer, most of their other friends did not and they now used the chance to catch up. It was rare to see Lily these days without Kavita or Athena by her side. He had never noticed it before, but the three of them seemed to travel in a pack. They left their dormitory together in the morning, went to classes together and sat together in the common room during the evenings. Then Saturday she had disappeared to the Quidditch pitch all day. He hoped he hadn't scared her off after the train ride. For a brief second, Colin had thought that she might think of him as something more than a friend.

He finally got to see her Sunday morning during breakfast, although she was too preoccupied to talk much. Colin poked at his eggs as he listened to the conversation around him. Hugo, Kavita and Athena were talking about the large amount of homework they had been assigned after only a week. He half-heartedly agreed with them that the professors were being hard on them because it was OWL year and maybe they'd let up in a few weeks. By the sounds of it, the three of them were headed to the library for the afternoon to tackle the mountain of reading they had to do. That would leave just him and Lily.

"Good morning Lily-flower," Tomas greeted as he sat across from her at breakfast. It was late Sunday morning, and the Gryffindors were slowly trickling in.

The nickname didn't even register with Lily. Usually it would earn a scowl and a 'don't call me that', but Lily wasn't paying much attention to the world around her. Tomas tried to catch Lily's attention a few more times, but gave up in favour of talking to Kavita and Athena after he realized Lily wasn't giving him the time of day.

Lily sighed as she looked up. "I still need to find a pair of beaters; no one who showed up was very good. I can handle someone who's just starting out and can be trained, but they need to show _some_ promise!"

"There were those second years," Tomas said, "they weren't the greatest, but they'll do."

"I just wish more people would try out," Lily insisted, "I'll know hidden talent when I see it. There's someone out there who would make an excellent beater and they just don't know it yet."

Putting together the Gryffindor team after half of it graduated was proving to be a difficult challenge. It wasn't that people weren't interested; it was that most of them sucked. The only remaining players were Lily, Tomas and Rose Weasley, but Rose would need to be replaced next year.

"Hugo?" Lily sweetly asked.

"Oh hell no," Hugo snorted. "As much as I hate to say it, I took after Mum in some regards. I prefer to keep both feet firmly on the ground."

"Kavita? Athena?"

Kavita looked terrified at the thought of playing _beater _and shook her head. "Oh gosh no."

"It's OWL year and I've already got enough on my plate with prefect duties and editing the _Hogwarts Howler_," Athena reminded her.

"Colin?" Lily's pleading, puppy-dog brown eyes turned to him.

"Yeah, sure there's no harm in trying out, right?" Colin agreed, his brain momentarily shutting off. Lily just asked him to join her team and spend more time with her!

"Colin, when was the last time you flew?" Tomas asked, sounding sceptical. "Not to be harsh, but not many people pick up a broom and can go pro. I mean, _I_ was a natural at first, but - "

Colin ignored Tomas' nay-saying, mostly because Lily was smiling brightly at him.

The fact that Colin hadn't flown since he was thirteen was just a minor inconvenience. He had been pretty average at it, and since he was almost sixteen he had a lot more weight and power than a twelve or thirteen year old playing the same position. Since there were no really talented players trying out for the position, he might have a good shot at it.

"You will? That's great! I'll put you down. I think I can convince Ryan Fawcett too. I'd feel much better with the pair of you. No offence to them, but those second years - they're just so _small_! I think the bludger would do more damage to them if they hit it."

Colin wolfed down the rest of his breakfast after that, and then followed Lily and Tomas outside to the pitch. Lily had booked the pitch for three hours again, since she was still uncertain about the previous session. He signed out a broom from the closet, an old Nimbus 2001. The broom had definitely seen better days and Colin hoped it wasn't too temperamental in the air. Maybe if he made the school team, he could ask his parents for a more reliable broom for his birthday in October.

The beaters were the first group to be tested. Several chasers hung around the pitch, watching the try-outs. While Colin was glad that he didn't have to wait an hour and let his nerves overtake him, he wasn't too keen on all the spectators.

Colin shakily mounted the old broom, preparing to take off. It was in that moment he questioned just what he had agreed to.

_You hate flying!_ A voice that sounded suspiciously like Hugo's told him. _You're going to fall and make a fool out of yourself._

_I'm not that bad!_ He had been fairly average at it in first year. Not a natural like Lily, but he hadn't ended up in the hospital wing either. He flew a few times at the Burrow with Lily and the various Weasley cousins. With a little bit of training he was sure he'd make a decent beater.

Already he was allowing himself to daydream about winning the cup; sending a bludger at just the right moment at the opposing team's seeker to prevent them from getting those crucial one hundred and fifty points. That would certainly impress Lily and he had heard of more than one couple getting together in the heat of winning a match. Lily's own parents had gotten together that way.

"I'm going to watch everyone do a few laps around the field as a warm up," Lily told them. "It's not a race, I just want to see how comfortable you are in the air!"

There were six of them who showed up to the second day of beater try-outs. Lily had invited the trio of second years from the first day to come out again, and had managed to convince two sixth years, Ryan Fawcett and Jessica Catchlove as well.

After a few laps, Colin was feeling more comfortable in the air. He had stopped holding onto the broom with a death grip at any rate, and would sometimes remove a wobbly hand. That was when Lily amplified her voice to be heard throughout the pitch, asking them to come and pick up a beater's bat. Colin grabbed one of the bats, realizing he was going to have to get really comfortable holding onto his broom with just his legs while he held the bat with two hands. Otherwise he'd never hit anything.

"If you're having second thoughts, you can leave," Tomas told him, "I'll tell Lily - "

Like hell Colin was going to let Tomas tell Lily anything. He'd probably exaggerate and say Colin went and threw up after landing and had to go to the hospital wing. "I'm fine. Better than fine, actually. That was really great, you know? All that wind and air, and the - and the _height_. I should have tried out _years_ ago!"

Colin clearly did a better job convincing Tomas than himself, because Tomas clapped him on the shoulder and pushed him where all the others were lining up.

"Okay," Lily told them, "I'm going to release the bludgers. I want to see you aim it at one of the dummies in the Quidditch hoops. You'll get three tries; see if you can hit each of the dummies. Fawcett, you're up first!"

There was a dummy levitating in the centre of each of the three hoops. Each was wearing the Quidditch uniform of a different house - Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.

Ryan Fawcett was the first up and while he completely missed the target on the first two, he managed to get the third bludger through the hoop, even if it just skimmed the dummy. Jessica Catchlove did much better, her first bludger was too high and flew over the hoop, but the next two knocked the targets down.

"Colin, you're next!" Lily said, smiling at him. "Good luck!"

Colin mounted his broom and flew to the centre of the field. Lily opened the crate and released the two bludgers. They rocketed upwards before zooming off in every direction. There were a few minutes before one of the bludgers came hurdling towards him at a rather terrifying speed. Colin closed his eyes and swung his bat, mostly in self-defence, and the heavy thud confirmed that he had successfully knocked it away. When he opened them again, he was pleased to see that the bludger had been sent in the general direction of the hoops, even if it hadn't hit the target.

He didn't notice the second one.

"_COLIN_!" Lily's voice, screeching over the wind, was the last thing he heard before he was knocked conscious.

xXxXx

Hannah pulled the curtains closed and stood over him, hands on hips. "What in Helga's good name possessed you to try out as a _beater_? Of all the dangerous positions! I have one of them in my wing every other week!"

"Lily needed a pair of beaters and I said I'd try it," he defensively told her, "no harm in trying new things."

Colin winced as he tried to sit up, his body still tender despite being healed. Maybe there was a little harm when it came to a dangerous sport played fifty feet in the air with two balls that were aiming to knock you from that height. Not that he was going to admit that to his mum.

"_Muffliato_," Hannah muttered, ensuring that they could speak in private. "Colin, can I give you some advice?"

"Since when do you play Quidditch?" Colin feigned being thick. He wasn't going to have a heart-to-heart with his mum about Lily. He had some pride and that was just too much.

"I mean about girls," Hannah corrected. "Particularly the redhead you're trying to impress by trying out for her Quidditch team."

"_Mum_!" Colin sputtered. He wasn't that transparent. "I'm not trying - we're just mates, that's all!"

"Oh yes," Hannah agreed, "and I have nargles for brains. I've seen a lot of foolish boy and girls in that bed, each after doing something profoundly stupid - "

"I didn't do anything _stupid_."

"To impress someone," Hannah carried on, ignoring his protests. "I know you're your father's son, and Longbottoms tend to be late bloomers so I'm sure you're feeling very awkward at this age - "

"Argh, stop," Colin cringed.

"And it is completely normal - for everyone really, fifteen is such a bad age - but you don't need to go doing anything dangerous to prove yourself to – "

"Can you just – "

"She's been your friend for years, Lily knows you quite well, and I'm sure that – "

"Mum, it's been a while since you've dated anyone. Things are a bit different these days."

"Oh, right, what do I know about girls?" Hannah sweetly asked. "You are clearly the expert. What will you be doing next week? Riding hippogriffs? Taming dragons?"

Colin glowered at her.

"You have a visitor," Hannah said with a knowing smile. She undid the muffling charm and opened the curtain. Lily was anxiously standing there. She brightened when she saw that Colin was awake.

"I brought you chocolate frogs, real ones, not the jokes ones," Lily said, her long, red hair falling in front of her face as she looked at the bundle in her arms. "And I made you a card."

The card unfolded itself, and a pop-up of a beater's bat crossed with a broken bone appeared with the words 'Congratulations on Your First Quidditch Injury!'

"I didn't make the team, did I?" Colin asked, slightly worried. He was not going to survive a season as a beater.

"No," Lily shook her head, a small smile on her face, "but I'll tell you what, we need to replace Rose next year so if you want to practice with me this year - "

Colin vehemently shook his head. "Oh Merlin, no! I think I'll keep my feet on the ground."

As Lily fussed over him and his injury, Colin decided that getting sent to the hospital wing for a girl did have some perks.


	7. Take Her to Hogsmeade

**How to Charm a Witch**

by ChatterChick

Summary: Colin Longbottom wants nothing more than to impress Lily Luna Potter. Unfortunately he has all the charm of your typical Longbottom male.

* * *

**Chapter 7: Take Her to Hogsmeade**

At the beginning of the fourth week back at Hogwarts, an announcement went up on the Gryffindor notice board.

_First Hogsmeade Weekend! Saturday, September 30th from 9:00am to 5:00pm._

The last weekend of every month there was a trip to Hogsmeade for third years and above. For the first few years, Hogsmeade had meant stocking up on supplies, checking out Honeydukes and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and then having a butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks. The village never lost its appeal, even if Colin lived there during the summer. It was always great fun wandering around with his friends and having a break from the castle and grounds. This year, Colin was looking forward to Hogsmeade for an entirely different reason.

It was considered the ultimate date in Hogwarts.

Sure, there were plenty of opportunities for snogging in an empty classroom or up on the Astronomy Tower. Some people got creative during the month and had picnics by the Black Lake or went flying after dark. But being asked to Hogsmeade or asking someone to Hogsmeade was viewed as a serious first step towards dating among the students and much speculation went into who would be asking who.

Naturally Colin planned on asking Lily. He was just waiting for the perfect moment. And to gather a little of the famed 'Gryffindor courage' that had placed him in his father's old house. Somehow Monday turned into Tuesday and then Tuesday rolled into Wednesday and before he knew it, it was Friday morning and Colin still hadn't worked up the courage to ask Lily to Hogsmeade.

Today, he told himself, he had to ask her today. Mainly because tomorrow was the day in question and by then he would have lost his chance.

"Looking good," the charmed mirror in the fifth year boys' bathroom informed him, "she's not going to be able to resist you!"

"Yes, well, we'll see," Colin nervously replied. He fought back the urge to run a shaky hair through his hair. He had spent longer than usual in the shared boys' bathroom that morning, making sure his hair fell just so. His hand automatically went for the little vial of Red Lion, but then he thought better of it, remembering the way Lily crinkled her nose every time Tomas overused the stuff. The one benefit of Tomas' failed attempts to woo Lily was that Colin had a very clear idea of what _not_ to do.

In the end he settled for just a tiny amount, deciding that as long as he didn't bathe in it like Tomas seemed to do, that it would be fine.

"You might want to get a move on," Hugo warned him once he was back in the fifth year boys' dormitory, "McLaggen's been working on conjuring lilies and charming them a very familiar red. I somehow doubt they're for one of the other witches. It's all very cliché of course, lilies for Lily, but McLaggen's never been the quickest wand in a duel."

Sure enough, Tomas had a bouquet of a dozen large red lilies on his desk that he was trying to keep from wilting. They were the exact same shade as Lily's hair and were tied with a golden bow.

"Shit, shit, shit," Colin cursed. How was he going to compete with _that_?! He had thought he could just walk downstairs and ask Lily if she wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him. He wasn't ready to make a big romantic gesture with flowers.

"_Finite incantatem_," Hugo muttered, discreetly pointing his wand at the bouquet. They immediately reverted back to a handful of weeds and Tomas let out a string of curse words. "You can thank me later."

For once, Lily was alone in the common room. Her usual cohorts were probably already at breakfast. She kept glancing towards the stairwell and her face lit up the moment their eyes met. She leapt out of the armchair and walked over to him.

"Should we wait for Hugo?" Lily asked, tilting her head and looking up the stairwell to the boys dorms.

"He said go on without him," Colin lied. He knew Hugo was trying to delay Tomas long enough for Colin to ask Lily on a date. Knowing Tomas, he didn't have that long of a window.

"Any big plans for tomorrow?" Colin ventured as they left the common room. He tried to appear casual, as if he wasn't trying to lead the conversation to asking her if she wanted to spend the day with him.

"Nothing big," Lily said, "I wanted to look at the new fall robes at Pretty Wicked, get some chocolate at Honeydukes. The usual, really. Did you have anything in mind?"

He really hadn't planned this one through. It was true that he and Lily - and most of their friends - spent every Hogsmeade visit doing more or less the same things. This needed to be something special other than two friends just hanging out. He wondered if Lily was the type of girl who liked Madame Puddifoot's. He had never been there, but he heard from some of the older blokes that it was a popular first date place.

"Oi, Lily! Wait up!" Tomas shouted, catching up with them. His chest was puffed out and he was looking every bit like the kneazle that just caught the snitch. Hugo trailed after him, looking apologetic. Colin was relieved that at least Hugo had managed to sabotage Tomas' flowers.

The smile immediately slid off of Lily's face and Colin could almost feel the annoyance radiate off of her.

"I was hoping to talk to you before breakfast," Tomas boldly announced, "alone if you don't mind."

"Anything you want to say to me can be said in front of Colin and Hugo," Lily folded her arms.

Colin almost felt sorry for the bloke. Lily was not making this easy for him and there was an awkward moment as Tomas seemed to consider it. Then he remembered that they were competing for the same girl and he felt less sorry. After all, the fact that Lily had no problem talking to him alone surely worked in his favour.

"Well in that case," Tomas said, "Lily, would you like to come to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Excuse me," Holly sweetly interrupted from behind them, "but I thought we were _all_ going to spend the first Hogsmeade weekend together. None of us have really had the chance to hang out since the term started."

There was a brief moment where Lily's brown eyes flickered from Holly towards Tomas, as if she was considering something. And then she smiled. "I think that's a _wonderful_ idea! Let's all meet tomorrow morning at breakfast then. We'll spend the day together, it'll be fun."

Colin glanced at Lily in suspicion. There was a smirk across her face and she looked a little too happy about spending the day with Holly and Tomas. She was definitely up to no good.

His suspicions were confirmed the next morning at breakfast. Normally Lily was the type to tie her hair up on the weekends and wear whatever was clean. Today, however, her hair framed her face in loose curls and she was wearing a tight pair of muggle jeans and a purple shirt that hung off one of her pale, freckled shoulders. She was wearing a long, golden chain with the pendant of a golden quaffle. Her face seemed different too, and Colin suspected that she may have used some make-up like the other girls in their year did. Her lips were pink and glossy. Her eyes looked wider and there was some flicks of gold on her eyelids. Her skin seemed to glow and her freckles were less pronounced. Lily was always pretty, but today she looked_polished_.

When she sat next to him, he shyly commented. "You look pretty today."

Despite the layer of make-up, the Weasley-blush still crept through to her cheeks. "You think? Kavita did it, it's a bit more than I usually wear - "

"I didn't think you wore any at all," he said, now openly starring at her in confusion.

She giggled in response. "Well, that's kind of the point. Looking effortlessly pretty and all."

Of course, Colin wasn't the only one to notice Lily's appearance. Holly's cheek twitched, but she didn't say anything. Tomas also looked, his gaze was in clear approval. The day quickly turned to dragon dung as soon as the group left the castle.

He had never seen Lily Potter _fawn_ over someone like this. She smiled. She battered her eyes. She touched Tomas' arm. Tomas' ego had swelled to new heights over the course of the day. It didn't help that now Holly had started too and both girls seemed to be in some kind of competition to out-do the other. It was sickening to watch and Colin felt a little annoyed that his best friend was putting on such a disgusting act to get Tomas' attention. Especially since she had absolutely no interest in Tomas until Holly intervened.

"Witches," Colin later complained to Hugo, "Are bloody impossible!"

They were hiding among the racks of robes at Pretty Wicked while Lily and Holly were trying on clothes. Tomas was sitting outside the waiting rooms, happily offering opinions to the girls. Athena and Kavita had had enough, leaving to grab a table at The Three Broomsticks for after everyone was done with their shopping. The only thing preventing Colin from leaving was worry that Tomas would somehow win Lily over in his absence.

"Well, if you've ever had enough, you can join me on the homosexual side, " Hugo said with a grin. He fluttered his eyes in a poor imitation of Lily. "I hear you have a thing for redheads."

"You're not as pretty as your cousin," Colin dryly remarked.

"Are you two coming or are you going to hang out in the lingerie section all day?" Lily called out, waiting for them at the counter with a small bag on her wrist.

Colin felt his cheeks burn bright red as he realized the rack he and Hugo had been leaning on was full of discounted bras and knickers. Hugo backed away, almost in horror at the feminine items.

"Where are Holly and Tomas?" Hugo asked, looking around the shop.

"They ditched me once I was paying for this shirt," Lily said with a pleased smirk, "probably to find some alley to snog in. Holly kept trying on all these tight little jumpers and I swear Tomas was going to jump her right there in the changing room. They're kind of perfect together, aren't they?"

"Match made in the seventh circle of hell, if you ask me. But that does solve one problem," Hugo said with a pointed look at the pair of them. There was a glance between the cousins that Colin didn't miss. Over the years he had become used to the silent way Hugo and Lily communicated and could often pick up on the thought process.

"You did on that on purpose," Colin said, slowly realizing just what Lily had been up to all day, "dumped McLaggen onto Holly."

"Holly's more pleasant when she thinks she 'won' and Tomas is more pleasant when he's interested in someone else," Lily said with a shrug. "I see this as a win for everyone."

"You should have been a Slytherin!" Colin laughed.

"I nearly was," Lily said, with a rather shy smile that looked out of place on her. Lily was rarely one to be timid or nervous. "It's just that one of my best friends went and got himself sorted in Gryffindor first."

The three walked out of the witches' boutique onto Boar Street, pausing for a moment as if to contemplate where to go next. It was the main street in the little village, with most of the businesses along it. There were a few side-streets that mostly had wizarding homes and the odd shop or café.

Lily looked up at the sky, and a warm blissful smile spread across her face. "It's too nice to go to Broomsticks just yet."

Hugo shook his head, "You two go on, I'll catch up with Athena and Kavita. Let them know you'll be late."

With that, Hugo excused himself, leaving just Colin and Lily behind. Finally, Colin had his chance.

"So, do you want to take a walk in Peccary Park with me?" Colin asked. He could feel his heart pounding somewhere in his throat, or perhaps it was up behind his ears? He could definitely hear it louder than usual and wondering if Lily could hear it too.

"Sure."

When Lily's hand accidentally brushed against his as they walked along the road, Colin tried to smoothly catch it. It wasn't nearly as smooth as he had been aiming for, and there was a clumsy moment as he tried to interlock their fingers while not making a big deal out of it. But Lily didn't pull her hand away, and that was the main thing.


	8. Remember His Birthday

**How to Charm a Witch**

by ChatterChick

Summary: Colin Longbottom wants nothing more than to impress Lily Luna Potter. Unfortunately he has all the charm of your typical Longbottom male.

A/N: Here it is, the final chapter! Thank you all for sticking with me and a huge thanks to you for your support throughout this. Especially all my reviewers. If you're interested in reading more about Colin, Lily and Hugo be sure to check out my new fic _Order of the Poltergeist, _where they all appear as adults.

Please leave a review if you've enjoyed this, I always love hearing from my readers.

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**Chapter 8: Remember _His_ Birthday**

The week following the Hogsmeade visit, Colin was still floating on cloud nine. They hadn't done much, only walked around Peccary Park hand-in-hand before joining their friends for a round of butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks. Still, something had changed in their relationship. It was left unspoken for the meantime, as if acknowledging whatever was between them would ruin it. Their eyes were more often drawn to one another, as if searching the room for the other. Lily sat closer to him on the couch in the common room in the evening, her leg brushing up against his and his arm would automatically wrap around her shoulders.

Hugo had informed him time and time again that it was all very nauseating to watch. It was all in good fun as Colin was certain his friend didn't mind that much. Luckily, James had finished school and Albus was in Slytherin because Colin was certain Lily's older brothers _would_ mind.

It wasn't as if they were Holly and Tomas though, who had apparently hit it off. Lily seemed smug with her matchmaking abilities, although Colin suspected part of it was just her being happy that Tomas was no longer hitting on her. The pair was often found snogging in dark corners all over the place, and one time Colin and Hugo had walked into their dormitory to get more than an eyeful.

"That's it! New rule! No girlfriends after ten!" Hugo had huffed once they rounded on Tomas after Holly left. "And a little more warning if you want privacy. A locking charm, a sock, _anything_ to give us a little heads up. That was more than I ever wanted to see."

Tomas raised his hands in mock surrender. "I'm sure Longbottom enjoyed the show. I heard he never got past - "

Colin hit Tomas with a jaw-locking jinx and the rest of the evening was blissfully silent as Tomas struggled to undo it non-verbally. Tomas' face was bright red as he pointed his wand at himself over and over again in a rather futile attempt. Non-verbal magic was something they would only start in their sixth year. Tomas would just have to wait for the jinx to naturally wear off. Colin was sure he'd regret it when Tomas thought of something equally unpleasant to do to him, but for now he was feeling pretty pleased with himself.

At just past dawn, Colin's eyes cracked open and he saw Lily sitting on the bed next to him.

"Lily - what?" Colin asked.

The witch didn't answer as she climbed over him and straddled his waist, leaning down to kiss him. He was confused, but happy enough to go along with it. It wasn't every day that the girl you were mad about climbed into your bed and started snogging you. Slowly, she pulled away. She pressed a finger to his lips as he tried to protest, shushing him. There was a teasing grin on her face as she slowly started unbuttoning her light blue nightshirt. She was on the second button when a voice drifted in.

"Colin?" It was Lily's voice, however her lips weren't moving. "Colin! Wake up!"

Colin groaned as he woke up from what had the promise of a really good dream. He startled, finding the real Lily Potter standing over him.

"Dreaming of me?" She asked with a smirk.

"I - ah - " Colin stuttered, feeling the blood rush to his face.

Lily blinked owlishly at him, and Colin wondered if she realized that she hit the griffin's eye with her teasing. Luckily, the awkward moment was interrupted by the grumbling in the bed next to them. Hugo had impeccable timing.

"Lily, what the bloody hell are you doing here? It's _Saturday _for Godric's sakes!"

"It's Colin's birthday," she announced, regaining her usual confidence. "And it's already ten o'clock. I'm not letting him sleep through it. So get up, the both of you. The Professor invited us all to a family brunch in his office. Hannah's managed to sweet talk the elves into letting her use the kitchen too."

The mention of his mum's cooking was definitely something that had Colin and Hugo sitting up. The food at Hogwarts was great, but anything Hannah Longbottom made was infinitely better.

With that, Lily turned and flipped her red hair dramatically over her shoulder and flounced out the door. "Be ready in half an hour!"

An appreciative comment came from Tomas, who was finally able to talk. "I love to watch them leave."

He was hit by two jinxes that time.

xXxXx

While most of the time his parents tried to treat him as normally as possible, they did make a few exceptions. Birthdays was one of them. Not that they did anything publicly since the rest of the student body couldn't celebrate their birthday with their parents, but the Longbottoms always arranged a private meal when Colin or one of his siblings celebrated one. Close friends like Hugo and Lily were always welcome too.

At quarter to eleven, the three of them were at the door to his dad's office, just down the corridor to the entrance of Gryffindor tower. Unlike Lily, who had eaten breakfast earlier in the Great Hall, the pair of boys were starving.

"Colin!" Hannah greeted him with a tight hug. She pulled back, holding his face in her hands and looking at him with misty blue eyes. "Oh, look at you! My baby boy's growing into such a handsome young wizard. I can hardly believe it's been sixteen years already!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Colin caught Lily and Hugo sharing an amused look.

"Now Hannah, let's give him some room to breathe," Neville gently pulled Hannah away from their son. He then invited the three teenagers into his office. It had been expanded for the occasion and a long wooden table had been set out. There was several dishes with food laid out, and a pile of gifts in the corner from his parents. Colin's siblings were already waiting at the table.

Colin and Lily sat down together on one side of the table while Hugo sat across from them, next to Anthony. There was a moment when both Colin and Lily went to reach for the pitcher of pumpkin juice and their hands collided.

"Witches first."

"It's your birthday."

Taking advantage of his friends' light bickering, Hugo stole the pitcher and poured three glasses, passing one to Colin and Lily. As soon as they were all seated, Hannah passed out plates and they started filling them with food.

"So, how was Hogsmeade last weekend?" Hannah causally asked.

His mum looked a little too happy and was glancing over at Lily when she asked that. Colin had the impression that his parents knew more about the lives of their students than they would ever admit. Even the staff couldn't ignore the Hogwarts gossip mill.

"It was good," Lily replied as she spread marmalade onto a piece of toast. She easily moved the topic away from their weekend. "Holly Summers and Tomas McLaggen are dating now, did you hear?"

"I've assumed as much." Neville ruefully shook his head. "I've already had to dock them points for being out of bounds."

"What were they doing out of bounds?" Alice innocently asked.

"Nothing I want you to know about, or to repeat for that matter," Neville warned her. Alice just rolled her eyes.

"Why not? I know what they're doing! I bet Colin and Lily sneak out of bounds all the time too," Alice said, pausing for a moment to eat some of her eggs.

Colin found the design in the ceiling very interesting, it was better than the smirk on Hugo's face.

Alice continued after she swallowed, ignoring the way that Colin stared at the ceiling, Lily started at her plate and her parents stared at each other. "You know, exploring the tunnels and hidden passageways. James told me about them once."

Colin's eyes flickered to his sister. He doubted, very much, that she was _that_ naive to what she just said. Luckily, everyone played along with it, talking about the many hidden passage ways in the school. Neville even told them stories about the Room of Requirement, although like most of the older generation, refused to tell them just where it was. It was a rite of passage in Hogwarts to find it on your own and it took most students the better part of seven years roaming around the school.

It was an enjoyable day, and the three friends ignored their pile of homework to spend the day out on the grounds after brunch. In the evening, Gryffindor took advantage of the reason to have a party. With seventy students in the house, there was often a birthday to be celebrated. As usual, the older prefects arranged for the house-elves to bake a birthday cake and bring a crate of butterbeer to the common room. A large banner hung across the room with "_HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN!_" written in gold letters.

At some point, Colin left the chaos of the party to go upstairs and use the toilets. When he walked out, he found Lily waiting for him in his dormitory, her hands holding something behind her back.

"I've got your birthday gift. Now, close your eyes."

"Is this really necessary?" Colin teased. He didn't want to give her too much of a hard time because he was loved birthday presents and was quite eager to see what Lily had picked out for him. Knowing Lily, she was likely to prolong giving it to him the more he tried to tease it out of her.

"I'm serious, close them or I'll keep your gift for myself," Lily smugly announced, "and it's a shame too because I think you'll really enjoy it."

Colin shut his eyes tight.

"Good. Now hold out your hand."

Obediently, Colin held out his hand, waiting for Lily to put something in it. Instead, he was surprised to feel Lily's lips pressed against his own. It was brief, almost shy and tentative before she pulled away. When Colin opened his eyes, her face was just inches from his and he could count every individual freckle.

"You're right, I did enjoy that," he whispered, barely hearing himself speak. He gently reached out and pushed a stray lock of hair behind Lily's ear.

The next kiss wasn't shy or tentative at all.

Sometime later, the pair were cuddled together on Colin's four-poster bed. Lily's head was resting on his chest and he combed his fingers through her beautiful red hair, hardly believing his good fortune. This was quite possibly the best birthday he had ever had.

"I suppose we should go down before Alice starts spreading rumours," Colin reluctantly said. It wasn't so much what his sister would say so much as imply. The older students would assume more was taking place than just snogging, especially once they rejoined the party after disappearing for so long. He could do without the ribbing from the older boys and he was sure Lily could do without the gossip.

"I don't think a single person down there would be surprised," Lily snickered. She propped herself up on one elbow and looked at him. "You're a little obvious."

"I'm not!" Colin felt his face get very warm. "And if you thought I was so obvious why didn't you say anything before?"

"Aw, but you're so cute when you're flustered. And Hugo said to let you make the first move. Something about masculine pride and ego," Lily admitted with a roll of her eyes. She summoned a small package from her bag on the floor. "I ordered this a few weeks ago from Flourish and Blotts for your birthday, it was _supposed_ to be a hint - "

Colin eagerly sliced through the wrapping paper, curious what hint Lily had decided to give him. He found himself staring at a blue and green book, baring the words:

_How to Charm a Witch_

_by Lavender Brown_

"I think you'll like chapter nine," Lily grinned as she playfully tugged his shirt, leading him into another kiss."It's all about the art of snogging."

_~The End~_


End file.
